Nine Questions

Mike Sterner is a public-library clerk and writer. Back in the late-'80s, he traveled doing standup comedy, and for six months, he wrote 50 jokes a week for Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect. He sold one. He was a horn player for the Phantom Limbs and Fraidy Cats, and once opened for Tommy Tutone wearing a ski mask, pointing a banana at the crowd and shouting, "Nobody move; this is a standup!"

What was the first concert you ever saw?

Jean-Luc Ponty opening for Jethro Tull.

What CDs are in your changer right now?

The CDs sitting next to my boom box are The Rough Guide to Turkish Café; Harps and Angels by Randy Newman; Buck Owens, 21 #1 Hits; the Donnie Darko soundtrack; and They Might Be Giants, Flood (on cassette). The first three are all checked out from YOUR LOCAL PUBLIC LIBRARY.

How many total albums do you own (CDs, vinyl, cassettes, 8-tracks)?

200 CDs, 50 cassettes and about 500 LPs that have been out in the shed for the last three summers.

Do you download music, and if so, legally or illegally?

I just helped my 12-year-old buy and download her first track, Pussycat Dolls' "I Hate This Part."

What was the first album you owned?

An 8-track, Bee Gees' Trafalgar. I played the shit out of that thing, which was not easy to do, because, well, it's the Bee Gees, and there was a lot of it.

The Jackson Five. I like to play "ABC" while doing dishes, and "Ben," a love song for a rat, is the perfect convergence of ridiculous and poignant.

What band or artist changed your life, and how?

I remember walking into Circle Records in Phoenix and seeing the life-size cardboard cutout of Elvis Costello ... with the words "ELVIS IS KING" throughout. It was a complete rejection of my parents' music and their king.